It sure seems that way. So many in my online gardening group have already filled their windowsills, basements, and (increasingly) greenhouses with coleus, begonias, geraniums, petunias, impatiens—you name it, they’re saving it.
On its face, this is admirable. Plants that are normally discarded at the end of the season are now being overwintered in some way so that they can return to vibrant life in late spring. But I am afraid I just can’t take up these thrifty practices. There are so many reasons.
- There is really no danger that the same or even better cultivars will not be available at garden centers or via mail order next year. In my case, I don’t want the same cultivars, especially when it comes to coleus. I just looked at the same 8 varieties of coleus for four months; they were nice, but next year I will want a change. There are so many cool varieties (if you like coleus, which I do). The same goes for petunias, annual salvias, and begonias: many, many varieties, with new ones every year. I guess I have a short attention span. I want the new shiny thing.
- None of the overwintering options appeal to me, except maybe the greenhouse, but that would need to be a full-fledged outdoor greenhouse with all the bells and whistles, which is not an option given my limited urban space. Windowsills filled with little glasses of rooting coleus? Ugh. A basement set-up with lights on all the time? The basement of our 140-year-old house is more like a dungeon. An electrician would be required and—oh, I just can’t be bothered. Not for geraniums.
- I have other winter plant-related activities that I truly enjoy. I’ll be forcing 150 bulbs (or so) in the basement’s root cellar, the one useful thing it does have. And I have upped my houseplant game, considerably, inspired by the selection that’s now available and the example of guest Ranter and friend, Johanna Dominguez. I do not call these plants “she,” have minimal emotional attachment to them, none cost more than $40 (most far less), and I have no compunction about tossing them if they’re too much trouble, but I do have about 45, including a few big tropicals that I overwinter and bring outside yearly.
- Infestations and similar problems are sure to come. I’ve got enough of that with the houseplants. At least with annuals, all that stuff can be more easily dealt with outside.
- I support local nurseries and garden centers when I buy new annuals every spring. These are all family-owned small businesses and I look forward to spending money with them every year. And I love seeing those familiar faces; it means summer is here.
Maybe some overwinter b/c uncertain of $ they’ll have for plants in the future. Others may want to repeat the look or vignette of previous years. I’m overwintering 2 plumerias and 2 ferns. That’s it!
I do buy 2 plants consistently each year: yellow petunia and red coleus. Must always have these in my garden.
Your plants are well worth the trouble!
Well, I’m currently overwintering a couple tomatoes and peppers. In my garden space. We don’t get terribly cold here – some years not even below freezing – so that isn’t a big concern. These plants started producing late, are still very healthy, and could give me that early production I keep dreaming of. And they are technically annuals. The local growers will still get my garden $$, and probably more of it in the next year than the last. But I want to see how these plants work out.
I did overwinter marigolds once for 3 winters straight. In the ground also. They were massive by the time they eventually froze completely.
Your great Rant pretty much sums up the entire Summer Romance chapter of my book Tropical Plants and How to Love Them. But there are other options and challenges for those who want and/or crave them, and encouraged by frugality and the desire to experiment, many people are taking that plunge. Plants are not as cheap as they used to be, and $40 doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Being realistic with yourself and your limits and doing exactly what you want to do with your resources – as you have written about here – should be the goal. Not doing what everyone else says you must do/love/keep alive – or indeed, throw away. -MW
Thanks Marianne! Just to clarify, I do save my big tropicals. In terms of annuals, none that I buy cost more than $5 or so, so that is where I am extravagant. But I do have two sizable monsteras which were quite expensive. I feel confident spending that much as monsteras are really difficult to kill. I am sure you could, but they barely need watering and dislike repotting. So those are expensive plants I can keep alive by doing nothing. I should buy your book!
This might be a bit strange but here goes. I grew up in Lockport NY. Had an uncle named Salvatore Licata who was married to my dad’s sister Elizabeth, she was a nurse. I still have a brother James Spedding and an aunt Mary Alice Defilippo ( dad’s sister) Both my parents have passed. When I saw Elizabeth Licata and Buffalo I thought I’d see if there was any connection. From Tampa, FL. Take care. Enjoyed your “rant”
I am replying to this via email.
Enjoyed your book & recommend for those intrigued by this Rant
Thanks Jenny! – MW
I pride myself in the ability to winter such plants to next year..
Here in Augusta Ga,a lot of so-called annuals,will come back or not die with a little extra care. Mostly watching the overnight temperatures. Weather here has the bad habit of turning freezing cold for just a few days in a row! Destroying anything inclined to warmer weather But covering them up with tarp can get you by. Some of my favorites are in very large pots & get brought in. They are the ones hard to come or bigger than anything I could afford to buy. Like my mosquito plant.It was $20 in a 6″ pot. Its in a 20″pot now. I love to experiment with cuttings & see if I can get them to grow. Amazingly many will, just set in a glass or tray of water.
Funny you should mention this, Elizabeth. Just yesterday I brought three plants into the basement that I want to save for next year – two especially colorful flowers and a jalapeno pepper plant I’ve been husbanding for three years. We have an “English basement”, so there’s a sunlit window by which to place them. Last night our temp hit 30 degrees and tonight it’s supposed to get down to 27. This is our first real frost … way past our average first frost date of October 15. Why save these things? I dunno. It’s not to save money. Guess I just don’t want to see them croak.
I’m trying to save some annuals because I’m half retired and on a budget. I understand why plants are expensive, as it’s hard work and high cost to run a nursery, but I have to save money when possible.
I like my plants big. Really big. It is amazing just how big a Sunpatien Electric Orange will get by holding it over for several years. They do need light to hold onto their leaves and look ok throughout winter. But even if they drop most of their leaves from low light and low humidity, summers heat brings them back without cutting back at all. And they get massive! They do need very big pots to keep from drying out too quickly in the drier house environment
seriously, not sure the point if this “rant”. Has someone told you it’s now mandatory to over winter common annuals? Has someone garden shamed you? Here’s a thought if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it♀️.
There is something so satisfying about taking a cutting of a plant and putting it in a little vase on my kitchen window sill and watching it take root. I did this last year with a cutting of my persicaria “Red Dragon.” It does not seem to be sold anymore (although note: it’s a perennial, not an annual.) It sprouts roots so easily. After a bit, I transplanted it into a pot and doggone it, I kept it alive ’til the spring when I could then put it into the ground near its parent plant. (This is huge for me, since I kill house plants. I no longer have a single one.) My poor baby croaked, which saddened me after babying it and watching it all winter, but it sure did make me happy for those cold, dark months. In fact, I am going to take a cutting of it today before we get a hard frost here in CT and see if I can keep my little buddy alive this winter.
Yes, exactly! I admit to being a saver of geraniums and coleus, partly to brighten up the house in winter but mostly for the thrill you describe: watching plant magic happen as cuttings form roots. I do mine in little milk bottles.
I’m with you! I drag my tropical in when the cold weather starts. I used to buy tall ones, but at 73, they became too heavy for me to move. This year, I purchased several smaller ones that thrived, grew taller, but were still manageable. My Mom loved geraniums, and I do as well. So I bring those much smaller pots inside, too. Some make it, but most don’t. As for coleus—may the chartreuse one I put in this year be available in the spring. What a pop of color in my perennial beds!
If this works for you, then why not? I’m not much into annuals, so for me it’s not an issue, plus I use my houseplants as annuals for +/_ 7 months of the year. I have lots of shade so I cart them outside in the spring where they grow beautifully until late October when I bring them in. Space for plants is at a premium at my place.–No greenhouse and only an indoor 10 ft x 30″ potting bench plus a very few other surfaces. I don’t have the room to save annuals (petunias & ornamental basil). I grow the petunias from seed.
Annuals have not ‘become Perennials’ – that is not possible – at least not yet. Maybe it is horticultural curiosity and wanting to learn more about the plant? That is what it is for me. Bedding Gardens – the practice of wholesale ripping out of one season’s planting to replace it with another went out of fashion decades (dare I say centuries) ago – are you longing to bring that style back?
I lived in Brevard, NC for a few years and had a patio full of beautiful plants. My daughter joked saying if I bought any more there wouldn’t be room for anyone to sit Ha! I had a lrg apt & 2nd bdrm not being used so successfully hauled all my babies in there. Corner windows helped & lights on every night worked. Nice visiting with them. I’m all for it. Enjoy that pleasure. Great hearing there are other crazy folks like me. God Bless. Carol
We’re not crazy, Carol. We’re responsible environmental citizens who are saving living things as well as significant monies. #Reuse! And avoid all those wasteful new plastic plant containers, too.
Agree heartily with Skyler & others here who overwinter. It is so wasteful not to. Elizabeth clearly works full-time so can afford to be carefree with her plants. Not so, we retired folks. #reduceReuserecycle I’m a total coleus freak and love to see them flourish inside in Winter & late Fall. Plus the neighbors enjoy getting those lovely beginner coleus plants grown in the little water-filled glasses she so easily derides. This is a column and a behavior for the wealthy. Reuse, please!
I overwinter a few plants in my garage. Last year I tried mums (successfully), this year I moved a few pruned back coleus to the garage, just to see. Re coleus, I save cuttings because I like the colors and there is no guarantee the same colors will be available next year. I planted some clematis into containers this past summer – those will winter in the garage as well. It’s fun to experiment!
Maybe because plants are living things, and after. Summer of giving you joy, they deserve a small amount of compassion—- when did perennial tropicals become our annual sacrifices? There are plenty of true annuals, no need for the carnage. (Written in the spirit of Garden Rant)
It’s so nice for you that you can spend less than $40 on a houseplant and have room for it too (probably in a sunny window).
I’m a middle-income gardener with a small house and no space in front of my small east-west windows in the mid-town of a large Canadian city: ergo, no place for indoor plants.
All the small (and even the large) independent nurseries have sold up to developers and moved out. Increasingly I have to make do with big box store gardens or corporate chains — or drive at least an hour out of the city.
Last year I spent over $700 in annuals for my containers and said tiny urban garden. At least I have a tiny city garden and not an apartment balcony or allotment garden. The apartment balcony and allotment garden are increasingly becoming places for people to be able to feed themselves. You’ve heard that grocery and produce bills have gone up significantly for most people, right?? It’s a luxury to grow annuals in containers for some people, never mind throw them away every year.
This year I thought I’d save (as someone mentioned) the city dump from a gazillion tiny black plastic pots (did I mention that they’re not recyclable in my city? something to do with black pots on black conveyer belts being invisible to robotic arms). But also the carbon costs and greenhouse gases from constantly reproducing tender perennials as “annuals” year after year.
Oh, and I am approaching retirement, so trying to experiment with what I will do when $4-6 “annuals” no longer seem like a bargain (that’s in USD by the way; more expensive when you convert to CAD, especially during the pandemic when traditional annual “flats” have not been available).
Oh, and the clincher — for that $700 on the annuals I believe (but can’t prove, mind you) that I also paid for at least one invasive jumping worm. Another reason, perhaps, not to buy potted annuals that might come with a nasty surprise. All it takes is one worm to invade your garden (they don’t need two to reproduce) and set-to to devour your organic matter in a short space of time, leaving you with depleted and erosion-prone soil.
So this year I am experimenting with shearing my “annuals” back hard, putting them in a grocery bin (not too crowded, mind you) and leaving them in the dark unheated “root cellar” (in our case converted to a wine/off-season-clothes-cellar) to fend for themselves during a cold, hard winter. If they die, so be it. If they survive, I will have learned lots. In the meantime I will also be ordering seeds and investing in a grow light. Gotta keep those jumping worms from spreading and invading our forests.
In case you’re picturing traditional garden beds filled with annuals — not so. I have thriving mixed borders of native and non-native plants, including Japanese maples, shrubs, perennials and bulbs that flower from spring snow melt to winter ground freeze. The annuals are just to add a splash of consistent colour.
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be hard on you, and I enjoy a good Garden Rant. But at a time when gardeners are trying very hard to be responsible citizens and balancing their aesthetic, economic and psychological needs (who doesn’t love to buy new plants every year as retail therapy?) with the needs of the planet — this rant seems a little out-of-touch. Our efforts may be a little too earnest (some in your online circle too preachy?), and it’s a drop in the bucket when you think of global waste on a macro scale. But change has to start somewhere.
There is so much privilege in this post.
The average income in the US is around $35k. Maybe plants aren’t just for the wealthy?
Well, I’m sorry so many are making this about money, when, in their hearts, they must know it isn’t. We’re gardeners and we find a way to garden that makes us happy. No matter what my income has been (never large), I have always loved to change annuals and found a way to do it. I have perennials and shrubs I cherish, but have never felt that way about annuals. Those I want to change. Before we start running to our ideological corners, maybe first admit this is an enjoyable pastime for most of us, and with those, you find a way.
Maybe because you were very blasé about $40 plants and tossing them in the trash? I can very well afford a $40 plant but I was just at a nursery yesterday and even I was balking at spending that much on a “houseplant” that I would put outside for much of my growing season here in Texas. Good grief.
Maybe if enough people are telling you this is an economic issue, it *is* an economic issue.
If a 40 plant dies, it must be discarded. Don’t see the sense of saving dead plants.
I don’t think anyone mentioned saving or keeping a dead plant! To each his own! If some of us enjoy overwintering our plants what’s the big deal? When you’re retired a $40 plant should be saved if possible. I enjoy my plants and try to save them!
These annuals are alive beings. I will do whatever I can to save them and keep them going. I feel like they speak to me at times. I get this impulse/urge to run to them and check on them, when I do, they seem to NEED a good watering.
I’m not so much into annuals do to reoccurring cost. I love to support our local nurseries, don’t get me wrong, but with rising prices on everything, I need to try different things too.
We are not crazy for going the extra mile to care for our plants, but we would be if we blindly toss them without heartfelt and effort to save them.
The main reason I overwinter my annuals is to keep my surroundings pollinator-friendly. It’s hard to find organic annuals, especially those I’m particularly looking for, in my area (plus they’re much more expensive). Stores don’t know what the heck they’re selling in terms of pesticide residues, so asking about it is useless.
https://xerces.org/sites/default/files/19-053_Buying%20Bee-Safe%20Nursery%20Plants_4%20pg%20%281%29.pdf
All the old garden books have chapters on over wintering annuals. My maternal grandmother would hang her pulled geraniums upside down in paper bags in the basement to replant the following year. She was an amazing plant person and they would have lived no matter what she did. Last year I put a potted geranium in the basement with little light and watered it one a week and it was gorgeous (and bigger) this summer. Trying it again. That’s the extent of my over wintering because of the indoor cats. No where is safe. But when I was a kid always had stuff over wintering. Cut off English I’ve to root in a bottle. Plant marigold seeds, they would have a weenie bloom in late winter. Start begonias in water. Had to have something green in our gloomy Ohio Winters.
Oh, ouch! I like to overwinter/take cutting of annuals because nurturing something over the winter helps me to cope with the winter blahs. And sometimes that cool begonia or coleus IS impossible to find the next Spring and then I’m kicking myself for not saving a bit of it in a wine glass on the windowsill (yeah–wine glasses are great space-saver!). I could rant about the frustration of starting seeds over the winter–forget about taking a trip to a warm climate, once you’ve got seeds to tend!
I may be the minority but I mainly fill my kitchen window with coleus and iresine- filled glasses that I refresh at least weekly so they don’t get yucky because they’re *pretty*!! If they pot up well in spring , great. I can use them or give them away
I love rooting coleus in the window too – mine are in little milk bottles 🙂
I guess I’m one of those people that like to save plants. I can’t afford to always go out and buy a new plants every year. Being on a limited income. So I tried to save as many plants as I can over the winter.
I’m overwintering several plants and like taking care of them in the garage. It’s wasteful and a lot of work buying all the same stuff every year. Three plants I have are a few years old and they look fantastic when they are put outside in spring since they are large in their nice big ceramic pots. This year, for the first time, I am overwintering a coleaus and two geraniums.
Its funny that this all bothers you so much!
I still will be buying plenty from the garden stores so not worried about that.
Curious what annuals everyone is bringing in? Is there a resourceful link i can check out? There’s a wonderful shop on Etsy called Sunny Soul Plants..extremely affordable too.
Thanks in advance ☺
I save coleus and geraniums, as well as tropical babies like elephant war and caladium that wouldn’t survive zone 5 winter outdoors. Some are cuttings I root in water, others go dormant and live in the basement.
All hail Margaret Roach! Here’s a link: https://awaytogarden.com/brrrr-overwintering-tips-for-tender-plants
@Anna – thank you for that useful link! I love Margaret Roach’s posts.
@Jody and @Anna – see also Larry Hodgson (Laidback Gardener):
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2021/10/17/how-to-lift-and-store-tender-bulbs-for-the-winter/
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2021/10/28/not-too-late-to-save-your-purple-fountain-grass-2/
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2021/09/28/which-annuals-can-you-save-from-the-cold/
You’ve hit a spot! I struggled over two winters to keep coleus alive, losing most because we have nowhere indoors consistently warm enough to keep them.
It was mostly because they have been so very hard to obtain here. I believe that is changing with the increased popularity of house plants and I do hope so, because this year they are dooooomed!
I read Anne’s “The Deckchair Gardener” and it made me feel much better about my gardening style. Yes, I love the pretty flowers and the graceful forms of trees and shrubs. And yes, I am in California where it’s warm enough that some annuals pretend to be perennials. However, I have other things I would rather do in winter than overwinter ANY plant. Between job, family, friends, holidays, and required housework (ugh), I want to rest from taking care of plants . . . and they need their rest too.
Seems to me that most of your reasons are due to your particular situation (dark basement, short attention span). Like someone else said, if you don’t want to do it, don’t. But don’t criticize those who do.
A blog with the name “rant” in it is quite likely to contain opinion and criticism.
Saving plants and experimenting — this is why I bring annuals in. Some annuals develop into big plants during summer, and I will plant them again in the ground in the spring. An example: lemon grass.
We have a fantastic spot for all those plants – our sunroom. Some will like it and continue flowering, and some will get their winter sleep 🙂 And I get to learn so much through this process!
How can you love plants and talk about throwing them away because you got sick of looking at them. I can understand that you don’t have the space or the time, but the wording here really annoyed me. You can always give them away, and if you’re really good with plants you can avoid pest infestation too. If people want to keep their plants alive whats the issue. I thought this article was gonna teach me something and it didnt, just a person telling others to be wasteful. People are getting over wasting their money, people are becoming more mindful, and thats why annuals are becoming perrinials!
I have to agree with Elizabeth here. I absolutely COULD overwinter my annuals. I have several setups and know how to. But I have absolutely zero interest in doing so. I have a planted fence that takes 80 plants. Would it be cheaper for me to grow my own, yes, but the local greenhouse I like to get them from grows them bigger and better.
Not to mention that I like to try out new color schemes each spring, so why save the old color? Plus I’m just plain lazy. I’d rather buy new plants in the spring than to fuss over the old ones all winter.
I’ve tried saving some annuals in the past but never managed to make them last unfortunately, might try again!
/Anna